How to fix the Senate without abolishing the filibuster

Filibuster reforms are normal, and they happen all the time.

The Senate filibuster is one of the most unfortunate accidents in American history.

In 1805, fresh off the duel where he killed Alexander Hamilton, Vice President Aaron Burr returned to the Senate and proposed streamlining the body’s rules by eliminating something called the “previous question motion,” a process that was rarely invoked in the early years of the Senate.

As Sarah Binder, a Brookings Institution expert on Congress and a professor at George Washington University, explained in 2010 testimony to...